WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Wilkes University men's basketball team were victorious in a Landmark Conference matchup with Lycoming College on Wednesday evening, riding a 51-point second half to an 86-72 win at Lamade Gymnasium.

Wilkes improves to 13-5 on the year with a 7-4 record in Landmark play, while Lycoming falls to 2-16 with a 1-10 conference record.

Lycoming dominated the early part of the game, taking a 24-5 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the first half. The Colonel offense came alive from there, cutting the lead to single digits with triples from Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) and Joey Zvorsky (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) putting the exclamation marks on a 19-7 run to make it a 31-24 game.

Four consecutive Colonel scores from there tied the game at 31 with two minutes to play, but the Warriors took the advantage into the break 37-35.

Zvorsky gave Wilkes their first lead of the day, scoring two layups to open the second half, before Lycoming tied the game at 39 with a layup of their own. That would be the second of eight times that the score was deadlocked in the half, with no team able to pull out more than a two-possession lead, trading blows back and forth.

With six minutes remaining and the game tied at 70, the Colonel offense was finally able to put the Warriors away, exploding on a 16-2 run that locked Lycoming down for five and a half minutes until they were able to score their final basket with 30 seconds left to play. Colin Ackerman (Manasquan, NJ/Wall Township) led the team with six points in the stretch while Merrifield erased any doubt, going 4-4 from the free throw line in the final minute.

 Merrifield led the team with 19 points, followed closely by a career-high 18-point performance by Zvorsky, who recorded his first double-double of the season with a team-high 11 rebounds. Ackerman was the other Colonel in double-digit scoring with 16 off the bench, going 5-6 from the field and 2-2 from beyond the arc. Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey) led the Colonels with five assists.

The Colonels return home for their next contest, welcoming Juniata College to the Marts Center on Saturday, February 1 at 4:00 p.m.